Specialty butcher shop files plans to open at 19th and Massachusetts

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Get ready for some charcuterie. I hear they're real good on the grill. My Louisiana cousin, Tex (geography is not his strong suit) and I are set to go hunt some down by the river.

What's that? I don't know what charcuterie is? Well, that may be, but I'm learning, and the rest of Lawrence soon will get a chance to as well. Plans have been filed at City Hall to open up a charcuterie shop at 19th and Massachusetts streets.

I'm sure some of you are already familiar with the word, but for the others, let me save you a trip to the dictionary: We're talking about a high quality, specialty butcher shop. Yeah, now I'm talking in your good ear.

Local chef Vaughn Good plans to open the shop in the vacant building at the southeast corner of 19th and Massachusetts streets. For those of you trying to picture it, the building used to house a plumbing company, and looks like an old gas station because that's what it used to be decades ago.

Good, who previously served as the sous chef at Pachamamas restaurant in Lawrence, said the shop will produce a variety of sausages, smoked meats, hams and pate. (You don't even want to know what Tex thought that was.) Based on my understanding, such products are at the heart of charcuterie, which is a French word to describe the craft of creating prepared meat products such as sausage, bacon, ham and other such dishes that I lie to my doctor about.

Good, who trained in the craft at the French Culinary Institute in New York, said he wants the store to have some of the elements of a neighborhood butcher shop as well. That means you'll be able to pick up a nice steak or other cut of meat for the weekend barbecue or that night's dinner. Good said he plans to only use meat raised in the area. In addition to beef, he plans to have pork, chicken and even some duck. No slaughtering will take place at the location, but Good said he plans to have full carcasses delivered to the shop so that he and his butchers can break them down into the speciality cuts they desire.

In addition, he said the shop will carry its own house-made pickles, mustards and other condiments. The business plans to have a small indoor and outdoor dining area as well. It will feature some sandwiches, meat and cheese trays, and something that Good hopes becomes a speciality — seasonal sausages that take advantage of fresh herbs and spices.

Good hopes to have the shop open by the end of winter or early spring. The site will need to win some approvals from Lawrence City Hall. The site was developed before the city's current development regulations were in place and, as a result, it is fairly limited on parking. Good is seeking a variance on the amount of parking required. He hopes to offer five parking spaces, instead of the 13 required by current codes.

But Good said he is excited about the location because of the neighborhoods that surround the site, and also because it is just a block away from the new Dillons on Massachusetts Street. He hopes the location will be convenient enough for patrons of the grocery store to stop by the shop for their meat needs on a regular basis.

I suspect Tex and I will give it a try, if I can ever get him to put down that rope. Hey, dummy, you don't lasso a charcuterie.